1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to woven fabrics, and fabric for wicking sweat or moisture away from the skin.
2. Background Information
There is an on-going requirement to make clothing, especially sports clothing, diapers and incontinent apparel and so forth more comfortable and healthier to wear and use, even though considerable moisture or liquids may be liberated by the wearer in normal use. It is known to provide composite textile materials that comprise distinct layers of materials having respective appropriate characteristics so that moisture, or liquid, migrates or drains quickly away from an inner surface of the material in contact with the skin of a wearer. The liquid may be retained in a second outer layer in the case of a diaper or evaporate normally from an outer surface of the material where there is only one layer, in the case of sports clothing, say. Examples of known textile materials can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,509,285, 6,432,504, 6,427,493, 6,341,505, 6,277,469, 5,315,717, 5,735,145 and 4,411,660.
The typical approach to the producing woven fabrics having moisture management properties is one of trial-and-error whereby new designs are manufactured and tested until a satisfactory performance is achieved. In the area of technical textiles the manufacturer is often seeking to address a number of different design requirements in addition to moisture management characteristics, these include properties such as flexibility, durability, and thermoregulatory characteristics, many of which can be modeled by different analytical methods. It would therefore be advantageous to provide a technique allowing manufacturers to reliably produce new woven fabrics with satisfactory moisture management properties.